Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Why sending money with Paypal sucks

I needed to send some money to someone with a Paypal account. Paypal stated the following on its website:
Log in to your PayPal account.
Click the Send Money tab.
Enter payment information and click Continue.
Review the details of the payment and click Send Money.
And,
Question : Can I use a credit card with PayPal?
Answer : Yes, you can use Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express with PayPal. Plus, when you pay with PayPal, you do not expose your credit card number to the merchant.


My experience was very different. I created an account, entered my credit card information and tried to pay by following the above instructions, but:
You cannot use this credit card for this transaction. Please use another funding source.
You will need to add and confirm your bank account. Once your bank account has been added and confirmed, you can continue this payment. Add your bank account information below.


I tried another credit card - no dice. I figured I needed to get verified but I did not want to give Paypal my bank information so I signed up for the Paypal Plus Credit Card. After going through all the steps to get a new card, I reentered my original credit card information. Still no dice. I had to use the Paypal credit card instead. The credit card I wanted to use was greyed out when I tried to change funding source. Thank goodness I did not give Paypal my bank information. They might have sucked away my account - well, not really, but I had trust issues with Paypal even before this and it hasn't improved.

In a word, Paypal sucks. As soon as this transaction is completed, I'm closing the account and cancelling the credit card. I just lost an hour of my life that I'll never get back just from messing around with sending money. Argh!

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